Kitchen Tips & Tricks

Fresh or Bad Eggs?

If you’re not sure how fresh your eggs are, or if they have been in your fridge for a few weeks and you’re wary about using them, try this quick experiment:

Dissolve 2 tbsp salt in 2 cups cold water.

Place the egg in the water gently.

1. VERY FRESH -sinks and stays down.

2. WEEK OLD - will rest on the bottom but the fat end of the egg will rise up slightly.

3. 3-WEEK OLD -will be balanced on pointy end with the fat end sicking up.

4. BAD EGGS - will be floating, bobbing along the surface of the water. Toss it out – it’s not terribly good anymore.

Easy Tips to a Clean Stainless Steel Pans

Stainless Steel cookware can be your best cooking partner. You need to care for it as much as you make use of it to keep it in great condition and to make your cooking superb all the time. To help you clean your stainless steel cookware and keep it great as new....

Boiled Egg with a Perfect Yolk!

If you want your egg like this without any dark gray covering the yolk, here's my how!

Prepare the eggs and water in a deep pan or sauce pan.

Turn the stove to high heat. Do not cover the pan.

Once it boils, start timing it for 8 or even up to 10 minutes. Photo was cooked for 9 1/2 minutes. This will depend on how you want the egg yolk. Do not cook more than 10 minutes.

When done, remove from the boiling water and transfer to a bowl with tap water. Let it sit for 2 minutes.

Then, it's ready to eat!

Pick the Perfect Cantaloupe!

Here are the 5 tips:

1 - Aroma - a sweet cantaloupe should smell sweet. There should be an overall sweet smell but I get the absolute best melon by putting my nose close to that small round circular spot on the bottom where the stem has detached. If it doesn't smell super sweet here I don't buy it.

2 - The Stem - should no longer be attached. A ripe melon will naturally detach its stem. Any bit of a stem attached means that the farmer cut off the melon too soon.

3 - Feel - a good cantaloupe should feel firm but never rock hard. Nor should it ever be soft and certainly not squishy in any spot.

4 - Appearance - that large smooth yellowish spot or patch on the surface shows where the cantaloupe was resting on the ground. That yellowish spot shows that the melon is ripe.

5 - Compare - a good cantaloupe should feel heavy. Compare the weight of cantaloupes. Pick up more than one and take the one that is the heaviest.

Low Fat Cooking

Stock up on spices. One of the keys to cooking low-fat and not getting bored is to spice your food well. When you have finished your recipe, always taste it and adjust the spices to meet your taste.

Use olive oil for cooking when appropriate. It adds to the taste of the dish and is better for you.

Get into the habit of measuring the oil you use while you cook, rather than just pouring it out of the bottle. It will be much easier to moderate the amount you use.

Vitamin C is destroyed quickly in cooking - so cook your vegetables with Vitamin C in the smallest amount of water possible and for a short amount of time.

To make fat-free broth, chill your meat or chicken broth. The fat will rise to the top, and you can remove it before using the broth.

Romaine lettuce is loaded with vitamins compared to iceberg. It has three times as much Vitamin C and six times as much Vitamin A.

Removing stains from your Cutting Board

Sprinkle some salt onto your wooden board.

Now grab a wedge of fresh lemon and rub the salt into the board.

The combination should scrub your board clean.

If you have a stubborn stain that is quite persistent clean the board thoroughly with warm water.

Now grab your bottle of bleach and sprinkle it on your stain.

Let sit for about 10 minutes. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Keeping Food Fresh...

If you store half an apple in the container where you are storing a cake, the cake will retain it's freshness longer.

Cottage cheese will remain fresher longer if you store it upside down in the refrigerator. This slows the effects of oxidation.

To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water, if it sinks then it is fresh, if it floats to the surface, throw it away.

To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

The best time to harvest fruits and vegetables for maximum flavor is in the morning.

Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.

Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it.

Mushrooms should never be soaked in water because they absorb liquid and will become mushy.

To keep mushrooms from discoloring, squeeze the juice of one quarter lemon onto a paper towel and wipe each cap with the dampened towel, this also helps clean the mushrooms.

More Baking Hints & Tips!

Bring chilled ingredients, such as butter and eggs, to room temperature.

Eggs or egg yolks should always be added to a cake mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Never open the oven door during the first half of cooking time. After the halfway point, if you need to open the door, open and close it gently.

When whisking egg whites, ensure the bowl and beaters are clean and dry before you start, or the egg whites won't whisk properly.

Perfect Cakes

Cakes do best if baked in the size pan recommended in the recipe. However, if the correct pan is not available or a special shaped pan is to be used, fill pans only half full of batter.

Shiny metal pans make a tender cake with a light brown crust because the pan reflects the heat. If you have dark pans, reduce oven temperature 25 degrees.

Place pans in the middle of the oven for even browning.

Layer pans should not touch and there should be at least one inch of space all the way around pans.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips!

Microwave Clean-up! After you've had food splattered in your microwave, it's hard to clean up when doing kitchen cleaning. Just boil 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1 cup of water in the microwave. This will loosen splattered on food and deodorize for easy clean up.

Old toothbrushes comes in handy! Save those old toothbrushes. When you go to clean the kitchen sink stopper, you can use your old toothbrush to get in all of the little holes. This makes cleaning the sink stopper much easier, not to mention that it does a much better job than your wash cloth.

Cleaning your oven! Kitchen cleaning help: To remove grease from inside your oven when doing kitchen cleaning, put a small pan of ammonia in the oven in the evening, and then close the oven door. In the morning, remove the pan of ammonia. The grease inside the oven will wipe off very easily.

Stainless Steel Sink - Use vinegar to clean your stainless steel sink. It will really make it shine.

(More cleaning tips to be posted soon!)

Too many Bananas?

Over-ripe bananas are great for baking because they have lots of sweet flavor and a soft texture.

You can easily keep them on hand in the freezer. Simply take the bananas out of their skins and seal them in a plastic bag and place in the freezer. They'll keep for months. Then, whenever you want to make your favorite banana bread, all you have to do is defrost as many as you need, mash them, and proceed with your recipe.

Measuring Tips!!!

Measuring Brown Sugar - Pack into correct size dry measuring cup just firmly enough for sugar to keep the shape of the cup when turned out.

Measuring Flour - When recipes call for sifted flour, sift before measuring. Spoon flour lightly into correct size measuring cup. Do not tap cup or pack down. Fill to overflowing and level off with a knife.

Measuring Sugar - Do not sift. Spoon lightly into correct size measuring cup. Do not tap cup or pack down. Fill to overflowing and level off with a knife.

Deep Frying Tips

The oil must reach a good temperature to brown the exterior of the food quickly while cooking it. That temperature is almost always between 350F and 375F degrees. To be sure the oil is right, use a frying thermometer.

Use canola oil for frying. It is low in saturated fat, has a high burning point, and does not detract from the flavor of the food you are frying.

Avoid crowding food that is deep-fat-fried. The food must be

surrounded by bubbling oil, and you must keep the temperature from falling too much. If you add too much food to a small amount of oil, the temperature will plummet, and the food will wind up greasy and soggy.

Never fill the pot more than halfway with oil; this will

prevent bubbling over when the food is added.

Dry food well with paper towels before adding to the pot;

it helps reduce splattering.

How to store fruits and Vegetables.

Never store an apple near a banana unless you want to ripen the banana in a short period of time!

Potatoes: To keep them from budding, place an apple in the bag with potatoes!

Store tomatoes with stems pointed down and they will stay fresher, longer!

Never keep greens in plastics, it will rot quickly!

While storing green chilies, remove the stems. This will help the chilies to stay fresh for a longer time.

To keep lemon fresh put them in water and store in refrigerator.

Never store potatoes near onions! Potatoes rot quickly if stored near onions!

Spices' storage:

Store spices in a cool, dark place, not above your stove. Humidity, light and heat will cause herbs and spices to lose their flavor.

Bitter melon- reduce the bitterness?

Blanch it in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes.

Core the melon, dust it generously with salt and let it rest for 10 minutes. Rinse the slices and prepare as you wish.

Core it, slice, and boil in a pan of lightly salted water. After 1 minute, remove and drop in ice water.

Fishy smell off your hands!

Try to put some vinegar on your hands and rub it let it stay for 2 minutes to remove the fishy smell.

- Tip shared by Ms. Helen Almonguerra

Tear-free onion cutting:

When chopping or cutting up onions, breathe through your mouth instead of your nose to keep from tearing heavily. The smell and the chemicals inside of the onions is what makes your eyes burn.

Keep the onions in a plastic bag and keep it in the fridge. Take out just before cutting!

Try prechilling onions in ice water for 30-60 minutes. This will slow the enzymatic reaction that releases the lacrimator; and that means fewer of the offending molecules circulating in the air and fewer tears.

Easy ways to soften the butter:

Put the butter in a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin or meat pounder to flatten the butter.

Grate the butter on to a warmed dish. You can also slice the butter and microwave it for a few seconds at a time, making sure you don’t keep it in long enough to melt it.

Crack-free hard boiled eggs!

ADD A PINCH OF SALT to the water when hard-boiling to have a smooth & crack free hardboiled eggs!

Double the Lemon juice!

Roll the lemon on a hard surface using the palm of your hands until it becomes soft or

Microwave the lemon for 15 seconds. You'll see how easy to squeeze and more lemon juice you will have!

Peel garlic the easy way:

Heat the garlic cloves in the MICROWAVE for 15 seconds, and the skin would slip right off.

Rising the dough the faster way:

Place the bowl with a dough on a wire rack over a pan of hot water or another way is to turn the oven on to 400 degrees F for a minute; then turn it off; place the bowl on the center rack of the oven and close the door.

Vinegar to the rescue!

More kitchen tips coming your way! I promise to add more cooking and kitchen tips for you especially to those cooking beginners. Good luck on your cooking!I hope you will continue to visit my site and spread the words with your family and friends. Janette